Klout is officially the Kardashian sister of social influence startups. Without showing any demonstrable talent, the company has been acquired by Lithium Technologies for a cash and stock deal valued at almost $200 million, reports Fortune.

But for companies like Klout, the window to become the trusted industry standard might be narrow. "I don't think these companies have enough computing infrastructure in place," Wu said. "But as these companies get bigger and the demand for these metrics grows, they'll need to add it quickly. If they don't, people will start to believe that influence measurement is meaningless and there will be less money coming their way."

Lithium, which provides "social customer experience solutions" for businesses, expects to IPO soon because it's startups all the way down, folks. The industry that redefined failure as a metric of honor is soft landing itself into a handful of corporations.

It's crazy that there are private startup companies that can buy other startups for $200 million. http://t.co/SailC49g8d